Drowning Accidents

Anyone Can Drown

Although drowning is the leading cause of death for children in the United States, anyone can drown. Most drowning accidents occur in swimming pools, but drowning can happen at any time, especially when children are unsupervised or not expected to be near water.

What Causes Drowning?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), certain factors make drowning more likely. These factors include:

• Location – bathtubs, home swimming pools, and natural waters are all linked to drownings. Many people underestimate the risk of these locations, especially if the property manager does not alert visitors to potential hazards.
• Missing or ineffective barriers – an effective fence reduces a child’s risk of drowning by 83%. Failure to secure a home swimming pool or another body of water could lead to a drowning death.
• Lack of close supervision – drowning can occur even when lifeguards are present. Children require close supervision whenever they are around water. A young child can even drown in an unattended bucket.

In many cases, drowning accidents can be prevented with simple warnings or precautions. If the party in charge of a body of water fails to issue these warnings or take these precautions, their behavior may be negligent.

How Does Drowning Work?

Many people assume that everyone who drowns dies, but this is not true. For every child who dies from drowning, another 8 suffer nonfatal drowning. Nonfatal drowning can lead to expensive hospital stays, long-term health problems, and permanent disability.

Anyone can drown in 1 inch of water or more, and children are especially vulnerable. Death by drowning takes 10 to 12 minutes and involves several stages. The earlier a lifeguard or someone else intervenes, the less severe the lasting damage will be.

The 5 stages of drowning include:

• Surprise – the victim feels water entering their lungs and begins to panic.
• Involuntary breath holding – the body attempts to protect itself by closing the airway. The victim cannot make sounds because they cannot breathe. This stage ends in unconsciousness.
• Unconsciousness – the body begins to shut down because the victim does not have enough oxygen. During this stage, the victim begins to sink.
• Hypoxic convulsions – the body begins to convulse due to oxygen deprivation. At this stage, the victim has usually suffered permanent brain damage and may not respond to rescue attempts.
• Clinical death – without oxygen and intervention, the victim’s breathing and circulation will stop and they will die due to oxygen deprivation and cardiac arrest.

Drowning happens quickly and quietly, so even experienced lifeguards may not spot a drowning victim in time. When saving someone from drowning, time is of the essence, and the best time to intervene is before the victim sinks.

If a drowning victim is rescued within 20 to 60 seconds, they can make a full recovery, but this window is shorter for children because their bodies shut down more quickly.

After 60 seconds, the victim requires emergency intervention and may suffer long-term health problems.

Who Is to Blame for Drowning Injuries and Deaths?

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed on someone else’s property, their negligence may be responsible for the accident. You should speak to an attorney if your drowning accident involved:

• Poorly trained staff (including lifeguards and childcare employees)
• Overcrowded swimming areas
• Murky water
• Missing, defective, or broken rescue equipment
• A lack of working gates, barriers, fences, or latches
• Public pools that do not meet industry standards
• Boat accidents or cruise ships

When you trust your loved one’s care to someone else or visit a public body of water, you expect safety. If this expectation is not met, and you or a loved one suffers a drowning accident as a result, seek legal help immediately.

Our attorneys at Kwartler Manus, LLC can help you recover compensation. While no amount of money will change what happened, compensation can help you afford medical treatment, funeral expenses, and other accident-related costs. It can also help offset significant losses, which can help you grieve and move forward.

Why Choose Us?

Kwartler Manus, LLC has 40+ years of combined experience helping cases like yours. We are trial-tested advocates who will fight for you and protect your best interests every step of the way. No one should drown or lose a loved one to someone else’s carelessness, and we are ready to see your case the whole way through to help you get justice.

Further, we never charge legal fees unless we win your case. Our only goal is to improve your life and your future.

We have recovered millions of dollars for clients like you. Let us help you, too.